Ledger · 2016 campaign · № 82

day one

Permanent hiring freeze on federal employees

Broken
“[paraphrase] A hiring freeze on all federal employees to reduce the federal workforce through attrition, exempting military, public safety and public health.”
Promised
, "Contract with the American Voter," Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
Stated deadline
“day one” → October 23, 2016
Overdue by
9 years, 10 months as of September 22, 2026
Re-promised
4 times with a fresh deadline
Topic
Other
Era
2016 campaign

What happened

A hiring freeze was imposed on January 23, 2017 but lifted on April 12, 2017, replaced by agency-by-agency workforce plans. Federal civilian employment was higher at the end of the term than at the start. PolitiFact rated the promise broken, noting no movement since April 2017.

Sources

  1. Impose a hiring freeze on federal employees PolitiFact Trump-O-Meter, Jul 15, 2020